i would like to begin by saying thanks to Tom Cummings for nominating me for wagon of the month so here is my story.
Our story starts on a summer day way back in the year of 1963 and a young boy of 7 years old (me) takes a ride with his father and uncle to the local Plymouth dealer where the uncle was once a slesman/sales manager.The reason for the trip is the young boys father is looking for a vehical capable of transporting his family of 5 kids and wife.
They start by looking at 4 dr sedans but he soon relizes there will not be enough room once the stat growing up.He start looking at the station wagons when the young boy dad look at this wagon it looks kind of funny from the front like it has 4 big eyes.The car is a seafom green 1961 9 passanger fury wagon.So they take it for a test drive with the 7 yr old riding in the third seat he is so excited he refuses to exit the car when they return to the dealer to finalize the deal. When the paperwork is completed he runs over to the car yelling i want to ride in the back. On the ride home all he thinks about is how the third seat is so cool. His younger sisters want to try it out when they arrive home
the novelty soon wears off for the older of the two sisters as the riding in the third seat makes her car sick.She to this day will not ride anything facing the oposite direction of travel.The boys older brother and sister do not share his enthusiasm as they prefer window seats.
Fast forward to 1967 and the wagon had served the family well and starting to show it's age both in looks and mechanicly is traded in on a leftover 1966 fire engine red fury II 9 passanger wagon.The boy upon reaching the legal age of 16 years old in 1972 and obtains his learners permit without his father's permission .He receives the permit and asks his father if he can start to learn how to drive .The father gives him an emphatic no because he already has 2 teenage drivers in the family and he can not afford the insurance the boy pleads with the father who says he has to wait till he is 17 because his sister will be married and his brother will graduating high school and have his own car reluctantly he agrees.
The year of 1973 comes by and in Feb the boy gets his wish and he begins to learn how to drive the 66 wagon his older sister teaches him and they go out every chance they can weather permiting.On one of his journeys in the car they are driving thru a construction zone to get to a Arby's drive thru resturant and upon exiting the parking lot the car bottoms out and hits the lower roadway with a huge thud and then an increased sound of the exhaust they realize he has ripped the exhaust off of the car from the muffler back.They return home to see dad sitting on the front patio the boy parks the car in front of the house and walks to the patio and dad says what happened to the car and the boy explains what happened.Dad is furious with the older sister for letting me drive thru the construction zone.The son gives dad some of his hard earned money from his paper route to pay for repairs and learns a early leason in the cost of maintaining a car.
I get my liscense in july of 1973 and makes a agreement with the father that he may use the car as long as he keeps the fluid levels full and an occasional wash & wax to which i quickly agree. I find out.. that to get the car once school begins that i must get up at 5:ooam to take him to work by 6:00am for a job that starts at 7:00am. I learn another leason that i still practice to this day to arrive for work early and that way you are more relaxed and ready to start the work day.
October 1973 comes quickly and the 66 is showing some serious signs of body cancer that had been previouslly been repaired by dad but had reappeared. Dad agin goes to the same Plymouth dealer and looks to buy a replacement wagon .I again go along and we look at a 72 sport suburban woody wagon and a brand new 73 custom suburban non wood wagon . which was the dealer owners demo dad not being a fan of the simulated wood buys the 73 which is equipped with the new 400 cu in engine which replaced the old venerable 383 though because of the raising emisions program makes less horsepower but i soon find out is a lot more powerfull and thirstier than the 318 ci in equipped 66.
The winter weather with it's snow fall comes in the middle of November i had asked dad for the use of the car for the purpose of i do not rember He agrees and he awakes the next morning to a light snow fall of a couple inches he .wakes me and says he will get a ride to work from our neighbor George who has worked with dad for many years and in fact he and his wife are mom and dad's best freind's but dad always felt he was imposing by asking him for a ride>He instructs me not to take car till the roads are cleared of snow. I agree and go back to bed.I am awakened by my mother later who tells me to get up and take my younger sister to school who missed the school bus i think yea right she just did not want to go to school .i protest and tell mom what dad said about taking the car with snow on the road and even though she does not drive says just get up and take her and be carefull.
We get in the car and i start it and while it is warming up i clean the freshly fallen snow from the windows. I pull out from the parking space and proceed down the steepest street in the neighborhood which has 2' deep culverts on both side with cars parked on one side all goes ok till the bottom of the hill when the breaks are applied and car starts to slide towards the right culvert and a telephone pole and the brakes are released as dad had taught and the car straigtens out and the brakes are applied slowly and comes to a safe stop. The next turn is a right turn down a series of several dips to a long down grade to a stoplight. I proceed with caution to the stoplight and at the last minute the light changes to yellow and the car in front stops the breaks are applied quickly and you guessed it the wagon becomes a out of control sled and slides to the right as the jammed to the floor and vears directly to the curb and rearends a VW bug parked ath the curb striking it in the drivers rear fender and launching it up over the curb and across the sidewalk and into the corner drugstore building. The deafening sound of the crunching metal stops and there is about 15 seconds of silence till my younger sister says dad is going to flip out on you glad i am not you and i tell her if she had not missed the bus i would not have had to drive her to school and to just shut up.The wagon received only minor damage to the front bumper and right fender and headlight but the VW was not so lucky.
The journey to school then continues with no further incedents. That afternoon upon picking dad up after work i must explain what happened when he gets in the car and says you drove in the snow did you not which i say yes but i have a excuse and he listens then says well did you learn anything today and i say yes when the weather is bad you must exercise greater care and use breaks spareingly on snow covered roads.
Upon graduation from highschool the first car purchased is a Dodge Dart Sport equipped with a 318 cu in engine and begins the ritual of buying a new car very two years till 1982 when i meet the love of my life Deb and we date till June 2,1984 when we marry and shortly there after purchase our first home together in which we still live.In 1987 i am promoted to general manager of Warehousing and Trucking operations for the company that i have worked for since 1976 starting out sweeping floor..s and have worked my way thru the ranks to supervisor .We have a good life together and then oct 1994 i am promoted agin to become vice-president of another company that is formed when our company absorbs the business and assets of one of our competitor's. I have the urge to get a play toy and Deb and i start to go to car shows when a co-worker invites us to his car club's outing and we become interested in street rods.
November 1994 we go to a local swap meet and we find a flyer tacked to a pole for a 1941 chevy streetrod for sale .I call the number and we go and look at the care and as soon as we get out of the car to look at it we say to each other what a nice car it is finished in a cadillac color called Medium Flax which looks like it is yellow. We take it for a ride and make a offer on it which the owner accepts and a deal is struck. The car is unbelievablly clean and rust free for a Pennsylvania car that he had purchased from the original owner with only 46,600 on it that had been stored in the garage since the 50"s. The car was driven the following year everywhere including Canada for a car show at Niagra Falls,Canada.
In 1996 i had the suspension completly replaced with a mustang II front end with power rack & pinion steering and replaced the rear suspension and replaced with gas shocks and sway bars. The following year the junkyard 305 and 350 tranny was removed and a brand new ZZ4 crate motor with 365 hp and a performance built 7ooR4 with corvette upgrades were installed .The motor received a noisy Pete Jackson Gear drivefor more accurate timing and a upgraded HEI distributor with higher voltage for a hotter spark. Vintage air/Heat was added also. We start attenting Goodguys and NSRA events all over the east coast specificly Columbus,Rhinebeck and our favorite Charlotte wer the participants are given the chance to drive thier cars on the track at Lowes Motor Speedway where the spped of 85 MPH was the minimum. I had achevied a top speed of 118 MPH on the back straightawayTHe speed bug had bitten me we would attend the Goodguys show in Indianapolis,IN were the oportunity to drive the track at the site of the INDY 500 and the Brickyard 400 could not be passed up except the spped was limited to 50 MPH. The next event we went to was the Goodguys show in Kansas City.MO while the track lacked the 32 degrees of banking that Lowes has at its 11 degrees was still awsome.
i have since driven a alchohol powered super comp dragster at Frank Hawley's school at the Pomona Raceway in Pomona,Ca and also at Doug Foleys school @ MapleGrove raceway in Pa. On Sept 9,2008 i attended the Jeff Gordon/Mario Andretti Driving School at Lowes Motor Speedway wer i drove a Nascar style car for 15 laps with a average speed of 144 MPH.
I became interested in wagons again after attending the car shows and seeing all kinds of wagons especilly the gm b-bodys after seeing the the Kicker car stereo demo wagon (now owned by lakeeffect) at the Goodguys Charlotte shows. I convinced DEB that wagons are cool and we started looking for one as my next project .
In Sept 2002 the mechanic at work asked me if i wanted to buy his 58 Chevy project truck that he had owned for 31 years that was a original Bell Telephone service p/u from TX that he had gotten from his grandfather as a birthday presant for his 16th birthday.He had done all the body work and painted it and totatly rebilt the suspension and installed a 350 automatic.I had taken him to many swampmeets and helped him find replacement parts but he had lost intrest after he had built a 383 stroker motor for the truck and decided he had gone overboard on the motor. He decided to put it into a clean 68 Buick Sylark that he had restored but converted it over to a 4 spd tranny.
I took the truck to work were we could work on it after hours in the shop that we had for our company truck fleet. We removed all the stock suspension and painted the frame gloss black and installed a MustangII front suspension and 9 in Ford Rearend and bought & installed a new Crate 350 hp motor.I was well on the way to completing the truck untill Nov 2003 and the company started to experience serious cash problems and i was let go 6 mos later they closed after 45 years in business.
in August 2005 the lease on my Dodge Ram Hemi p/u was up and i turned it back in. I started looking for a used car for a daily driver and started looking at GM b-Bodys and i bought a 92 Chevy Caprice one owner car with 100,000 mile which i still own. A couple day later we become aware of the IMPALa SS Forum one day when Deb is doing the laundry and mixes OXYCLEAN and regular laundry detergent that created a dangerous gas cloud in the house that set off the Carbon Dioxide/Dangerous Gas arlarm in the basement the fire dept is called and us and our two beagles are forced from the house at which the older male beagle TIPPY2 sees the oportunity to run away and bolts once Deb opens the door .I chase him thru the heighborhood till i hear the wail of sirens approching and i run back to the house meet the fir dept. I explain the alarm going off but not knowing why the put on air masks and enter the house thier meters go off the scale but they are unable to pinpoint the cause.They call for the HAZ-MAT unit which arrives shortly therafter and evaculate the area . We are allowed to return four hours later.
During the time we are standing around two of the younger firefighters tell us about the forum where we learn of Fred and his Wagonfest gathering which we attend in 06 . We then find about the local club we belong to IRONCITY IMPALA SS CLUB(ICISS) were we meet and become close freinds with MIKE(SCOOB8000) & Jess . Our first meeting was scheduled for a saturday at a local shopping area called Station Square (formerly the freight station for the PL&e R.R) Deb & i are sitting outside the resturant wating for the rest of the group to show. I look up and i see a familar face it is TIM K who was my best freind in grade school and whom i went to high school with also. Tim says mark what are you doing here and i explain the club to him and he says he is there for the smae reason . Tim was one of the original members since its begining in 1996 when he bought his 96 Impala SS . I had seen him before at a local al Chevy show.
2007 comes around and Deb's lease is to expire on her 2005 CHRYSLER PACIFICA (a wagon of sorts) we start looking at replacements and she wants a RMW .I call Fed(RUPHRAX) to see what he has and we buy a low mileage 59,000 96RMW white woody and take delivery at Wagonfest 07. Deb loves the car i have the windows tinted,romote starter installed. Ventshades put on it and find a factory .AM/FM TAPE /CD from the junkyard were i also find a cargo cover for $10.oo. All is well till Nov 2009 when i am driving her car and being distracted i do not see the car ahead of me stop . I stand on the brakes but can not avoid hitting the car in front of me a Chevy Cobalt which i belive was totaled due to severe rear damage. Th RMW was totaled due to the unavailbity of front bumper .I tried to buy the car back but the insurance company would not deal with me fairly.
I called Fred and a replacement 96 RMW is bought this time it has more miles but still low 94,000. The car is an exact replacement for the one i totaled. We are also members of the INTERNATIONAL STATION WAGON CLUB (ISWC) and have really enjoy driving the b-body wagons and look forward to Wagonfest 10 were we look forward to see all of the great people we have meet there. The wagon community by far is the most freindly and knowagable of all groups of car people we have been connected to the last 15years. I always come to the forums for ideas or help and thank all of you have participated in making these forums what they are.
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Mon Mar 01, 2010 1:52 am
